2016 SDMX Experts meeting, 17-20 October 2016, Aguascalientes, Mexico. More information at: http://www.oecd.org/std/sdmx-expert-group-meeting-2016.htm

1. .
The Africa Information Highway (AIH)

2. The Africa Information Highway:
facilitating data exchange & dissemination in SDMX
The 2016 SDMX Expert Group Meeting on Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange
Aguascalientes, Mexico, 17-20 October 2016

3. What is the Africa Information Highway?
The Africa Information Highway (AIH) is
the AfDB’s initiative that has linked the
African countries through the Open Data
Platform.
Data management and dissemination tools
covering different domains

4. What is the Africa Information Highway?
As part of the initiative each country got an:
 Open Data Portal is now termed the Open Data Platform
(ODP).
 More than just a portal…
 Multiple functionality
 Tool for data submission/collection– IMF example.
 Executive Mobile Monitor- ios and android.
Modalities of the AIH

5. Background
 High Level Forum for Aid Effectiveness, Busan, Dec 2011 => Busan
Action Plan for Statistics (BAPS)—call to promote full access to
official statistics
 4th Statistical Commission for Africa’s of 2012—request to
AFDB
 AU Summit of July 2012 (AfDB, AUC, and ECA) to support
countries to develop effective data management and
dissemination systems
 G8 summit of June 2013—Good governance to scale up
development effectiveness
 AfDB’s Statistical Capacity program.

6. Rationale
 Policy and other decision making not data-driven
 Data access by the general public is limited
 Data access/exchange within/between countries and with
international organizations challenging
 Data reporting to organizations a major burden and a
challenge
 Comparability is still a challenge
 Limited data within countries to support Bank operations
 Data quality.

7. Partner
Partner
Partner
Submission to partnersData mapping to
Requested formats
Current process
• Organization specific data mapping and formats leading to repetitive work
• Lack of common standards
• Reporting burden heavy on countries.
Country data
Current Data Transmission Method

8. Data Submission Tool
Future data submission process by countries
Partner
Partner
Partner
Submission to partners
Data mapping to
International Standards (SDMX)
On the Open Data platform
To-be process
• Countries map data to international standards (SDMX) and load in the AfDB’s
Open Data platform
• Data collecting organizations pick from the Open Data platform .
Country data
Proposed data submission process
(Inclusion of SDMX)
Data Submission tool
[ Country/Agency ODP ]

9. Collaboration with IMF on AIH
 AfDB/IMF collaboration on AIH
 20 countries visited by joint missions
 Most agencies involved are MOFs, CBs and NSOs
 Users trained on:
Data Submission to IMF
eGDDS NSDP dissemination
Basic data analysis
Dashboard development and other visualizations
Admin of the platform

10. What is the National Summary Data Page (NSDP)
Part of the IMF’s data dissemination
standards (SDDS, SDDS Plus, and e-GDDS)
Requires (SDDS, SDDS Plus) or encourages
(e-GDDS) countries to disseminate a
standard set of data
Countries disseminate data in SDMX for
SDDS Plus and eGDDS and, in the future,
SDDS as well

11. Dataset creation on ODP…
 load data into it via Excel or CSV with local and
SDMX codes (ECOFIN DSD)
 The consistency of the mapping phase is ensured
via IMF technical assistance
 The data then become available to the public
including tables and charts
 Also machine-to-machine exchange using the ODP
SDMX web service

12. Country
Open Data Platform
Ministry of
Finance
National
Statistical office
Central
Bank
IMF
AfDB
Dashboards/Visualizations
and other (IMF NSDP)
CB ODP
MOF ODP
NSO ODP
Implementation Framework
*
Public
Partner
pulls
the
data
from
the
ODP COMESA
World Bank

14. Once dataset is created within ODP, Agencies can extract data
using SDMX. (subject to SDMX configuration)
Example of SDMX Extraction..

15. This brings us to the SDGs!
ODP has not limit in terms statistical
domains…
MDGs data dissemination and reporting
experience?
How to remedy the situation?
Experience with IMF in more than 20
countries
The birth of the SDGs Data Hub
 Regional and,
 National

16. Country
Open Data Platform
AfDB
UNECA
SDGs Country Data Hub
Dashboards/Visualizations
SDGs Dissemination Framework
*
Public
Partner
pulls
the
data
from
the
ODP UNSD
World Bank
Ministry of
Health
Ministry of
Environment
Ministry of
Education
Other
Ministries
Health
Goals
Environmental
Goals
Education
Goals
Other
Goals

20. Benefits for countries
 No need to coordinate among national agencies
to centralize data
 Reduced dissemination and reporting burden
 Focus on content and not the technical needs
 Reduced cost and time
 Decreases development time & costs

21. Benefits for the international communities
 SDGs disseminated in the format that is
understood by everyone
 Data available in an open format for easy re-use
 ODP has an SDMX compliant web service to
retrieve data

22. What needs to be done?
 SDGs Country Data Hubs are available to all
African Countries willing to adopt it
 Contains preliminary data from national and
international sources as start
 You decide on your indicators, breakdown etc
 We provide the assistance to upload data, change
structure, etc. etc.

23. But…
 Capacity in SDMX has to be built in Africa for the
following reasons:
We need a wider community using SDMX
SDGs DSD will not cover all indicators and
breakdown at country level- Countries may want
to do it…
Reporting burden - No one left behind
Challenges we are facing:
Few experts in Africa
European and other international agencies or
don’t have mandate or don’t have resources..

24. Thank you
Contacts:
K.L.KOUAKOU@AFDB.ORG
R.MAHJOUBI@AFDB.ORG